Sometimes you just want ice cream.
For more than a year Manteca’s La Mangonada has been serving up tasty frozen treats with a Mexican twist that are unlike anything else you’ll find at mainstream dessert destinations.
And it’s their namesake – the mangonada – that has customers coming in droves.
According to Alex Sanchez – who helps run Manteca’s three Taqueira La Estrella for his uncle Juan Fonseca – is one of the most popular items on the menu, and isn’t something that you can get at any of the restaurants the family owns.
With a mango ice cream base – made fresh on-site – and a scoop of fresh mangos, the delicacy is accented with chile and slices of pineapple before being served up to customers. It’s just one of many Mexican frozen delicacies that the shop, which opened near Food-4-Less in October of 2014, has built a steady customer base and generated quite the buzz on Internet review sites like Yelp.
By providing something that can’t be found at your typical taqueira, La Mangonada has made himself unique amongst the string of establishments that cater to Mexican people and fans of the cuisine alike.
“These are different things that we have at the taqueira and that makes it a place that people are willing to go in order to try something new or try something that they love,” Sanchez said. “We wanted to bring something different to the city of Manteca that’s more than just Mexican food. And business still isn’t where we’d like it to be, but it’s getting better as more people find out about where we are and what we do here.”
The menu doesn’t just stop at ice cream. A variety of juice blends are available for the health-conscious crowd and are made using only fresh fruits and vegetables to provide the best quality and the best taste.
Hungry for something to eat?
Why not try one of their Sinaloa-style tortas – a Mexican-style sandwich that uses a very particular type of pork – or accent your choice with a bag of chips or pork rinds.
All of the ice cream in the cooler is made on-site, and a walk-in cooler accents the back wall of the counter showcasing all of the fruits and vegetables that go into making the unique and flavorful concoctions.
“People come in and see what we have and they really like the healthy juices and the things that have no sugar in them whatsoever,” Sanchez said. “And if this goes well, maybe we’ll open another one in another community at some point in the future.
“We just want to appeal to what our customers want.”
La Mangonada is located at 1174 E. Yosemite Avenue, is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more information call 209.328.1955.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
